Fats Domino, who pioneered rock, dead aged 89

NEW YORK - AFP

Fats Domino, whose rollicking boogie-woogie piano helped give birth to rock ‘n’ roll, has died in his lifelong home of New Orleans, the coroner said on Oct. 25. He was 89.

One of the top-selling artists of the 1950s, Domino had been hailed as an indispensable influence by legends including Elvis Presley, Bob Marley and especially The Beatles, who called his music their first encounter with rock.

The famously reclusive musician, who had made few public appearances over the past decade, died Tuesday morning of natural causes, said Gerry Cvitanovich, the coroner of Jefferson Parish.

Despite finding global fame, Domino never moved out of the working-class Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans where he and his late wife Rosemary raised eight children and he would sometimes be spotted sleeping outside in a hammock.

In his heyday Domino rivaled Presley in record sales and for the crown of King of Rock ‘n’ Roll. But with a natural shyness, and segregation still reigning in much of the United States, the self-effacing Domino faded in prominence by the mid-1960s as a crop of swaggering rock stars came to dominate pop culture.

Born as Antoine Domino, the plump pianist picked up his nickname early, which was cemented by the success of 1949’s “The Fat Man,” the first rock ‘n’ roll single to sell one million copies as post-World War II consumer culture took root.

Domino found a global audience after being sought out by Lew Chudd, a Canadian-born advertising salesman who had seen the potential of recorded music and earlier worked with the jazz clarinetist Benny
Goodman.